BEIJING (Reuters) - China has overtaken Japan to become the world's second-largest economy, the fruit of three decades of rapid growth that has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. Depending on how fast its exchange rate rises, China is on course to overtake the United States and ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Three months after the catastrophic oil rig explosion that sent millions of gallons of crude spewing into the Gulf of Mexico, the U.S. House of Representatives was poised on Friday to debate legislation clamping down on the industry's offshore drilling practices. The ...

The source was not immediately able to specify the nature of the poisoning or the seriousness of their condition. A spokesman for the U.S. embassy was not immediately available for comment. (Reporting by Nicolas Bertin and Gerard Bon; Editing by Peter ...

PHOENIX (Reuters) - Arizona on Thursday appealed a judge's decision to block key parts of the state's crackdown on illegal immigrants and police in Phoenix arrested scores of activists protesting the remaining measures in the law. Lawyers for Governor Jan Brewer and Arizona asked the 9th U.S. ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Economic growth likely slowed in the second quarter as a capital investment drive by businesses was sated by imports and consumer spending tapered off, a government report is expected to show on Friday. Gross domestic product expanded at a 2.5 percent annual rate compared to ...

BOISE, Idaho (Reuters) - More than 2,000 miles from the Gulf of Mexico shoreline, a panel of U.S. judges heard arguments from lawyers on Thursday on how piles of oil spill-related lawsuits against BP Plc should be merged. The panel, meeting in Boise, Idaho, as part of its regularly scheduled ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks may have blood on its hands, the Pentagon said on Thursday, warning its unprecedented leak of secret U.S. military files could cost lives and damage trust of allies. An Army intelligence officer, already under arrest, is at the center of ...

GUADALAJARA, Mexico (Reuters) - Mexican soldiers killed drug boss Ignacio "Nacho" Coronel on Thursday, the first major triumph this year for President Felipe Calderon's war against drug cartels but one that is unlikely to end spiraling violence. The Mexican army shot dead Coronel, a ...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - All four crew members were killed in a U.S. Air Force cargo plane that crashed in flames while practicing for an aviation show at Elmendorf Air Force Base, the Air Force said Thursday. The C-17 Globemaster went down Wednesday evening in a wooded area near airfield in ...

The U.S. embassy in Mexico City said in a statement on Thursday that the Ciudad Juarez consulate would "remain closed until the security review is completed." A U.S. enforcement official who declined to be named said the consulate had closed after receiving a "credible threat" ...